Help With Carnage (Symbiote) Homage Build

benoitsean

I just bought the Roin'esh costume set and wanted to create a symbiote type character (more like Carnage then Venom) using the Roin'esh axe hand piece. I wanted to name him Cancer. I was thinking maybe a Darkness/Beastial type build. That way I can use the bleeding and slashing from beastial for the giant axe and claws and fear and tentacle type stuff from darkness for the symbiote portion of it.

Here's a quick concept build of what I want:

Cancer - Freeform (Hybrid)
v3.44:36

Super Stats
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Endurance (Secondary)

Talents
Level 1: The Chiller (Dex: 10, Con: 10, Rec: 8, End: 10)
Level 6: Accurate (Dex: 5, End: 5)
Level 9: Boundless Reserves (Con: 5, End: 5)
Level 12: Amazing Stamina (Rec: 5, End: 5)
Level 15: Impresario (Dex: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 18: Quick Recovery (Con: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 21: Acrobat (Dex: 5, Con: 5)

Powers
Level 1: Shadow Bolt
Level 1: Shred (Rank 2, Penetrating Strikes)
Level 6: Wild Thing
Level 8: Night Warrior (Rank 2, Rank 3, Silent Running)
Level 11: Mental Discipline
Level 14: Shadow Embrace (Dark Displacement, Draining Shadows)
Level 17: Frenzy (Rank 2, Fear Sense)
Level 20: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Summon Shadows (Rank 2, Devouring Darkness)
Level 26: Resurgence
Level 29: Grasping Shadows (Unyielding Agony, Consumption)
Level 32: Ebon Void (Voracious Darkness)
Level 35: Dark Tether (Work Up)
Level 38: Massacre (Bloody Mess)
Adv. Points: 36/36

Travel Powers
Level 6: Ooze Tunneling
Level 35: Corrosive Jump

Specializations
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Power Swell (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (2/2)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Anguish (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Brawler: The Glory of Battle (2/3)
Brawler: Penetrating Strikes (2/2)
Brawler: Ruthless (2/2)
Brawler: Finishing Blow (2/3)
Brawler: Setup (2/2)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

Devices

Let me know what you all think of the build and if there needs to be any changes made to it. Thank you in advance for the help.

flowcyto

Mental Discipline won't proc from most Bestial attacks. Conversely, Wild Thing won't proc on most Darkness attacks, but perhaps that's less of an issue if you're mostly going to be using Bestial for offense. You could maybe just use FotTempest as the form/toggle, since you already SS'd Dex, and that gives you more freedom to use w/e attacks you want. I would also max out Massacre, assuming it's your main single-target attack here, and maybe change to Supernatural Power as the EU for it. I'd also change the specs a bit- prob to incorporate Vind spec (esp if using FotT), and I'd also prob use the melee dps role for the build.

Here's an example edit of it:

Cancer - Freeform (Melee Damage)
v3.44:36

Super Stats
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Endurance (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents
Level 1: The Chiller (Dex: 10, Con: 10, Rec: 8, End: 10)
Level 6: Impresario (Dex: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 9: Amazing Stamina (Rec: 5, End: 5)
Level 12: Accurate (Dex: 5, End: 5)
Level 15: Quick Recovery (Con: 5, Rec: 5)
Level 18: Acrobat (Dex: 5, Con: 5)
Level 21: Boundless Reserves (Con: 5, End: 5)

Powers
Level 1: Shadow Bolt
Level 1: Shred (Rank 2, Penetrating Strikes)
Level 6: Supernatural Power
Level 8: Night Warrior (Rank 2, Rank 3, Silent Running)
Level 11: Form of the Tempest
Level 14: Frenzy (Rank 2, Fear Sense)
Level 17: Resurgence
Level 20: Massacre (Rank 2, Bloody Mess)
Level 23: Shadow Embrace (Rank 2, Draining Shadows)
Level 26: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Dark Tether (Work Up)
Level 32: Summon Shadows (Rank 2, Devouring Darkness)
Level 35: Ebon Void (Rank 2)
Level 38:
Adv. Points: 33/36

Travel Powers
Level 6: Ooze Tunneling
Level 35: Corrosive Jump

Specializations
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (2/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Brawler: The Glory of Battle (1/3)
Brawler: Penetrating Strikes (2/2)
Brawler: Ruthless (2/2)
Brawler: Setup (2/2)
Brawler: Flanking (3/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

The last power can be w/e ya want.

I tried to keep most of the powers for the sake of the theme here. For single-target dps, you'll mainly be alternating between Shred and charged Massacre. SEmbrace gives you a ranged AoE attack and self-heal option (you can go back to the KD adv, though this will lower its dmg a bit), while Frenzy can be your main up-close AoE attack here. Taps of Dark Tether can help CC and put up another self-heal, while Summon Shadows can provide some extra dmg and healing in the background. Gears mostly for Dex, w/ some End/Rec and Con (and some extra cost discount on gear).

benoitsean

Thanks Flow. On your build I did change END to REC because of Supernatural Power being better with REC and for the empty slot I just went ahead and added Fiery Embrace incase things go south. Other than that it looks pretty good.

flowcyto

Although Supernatural Power's energy restore scales w/ Rec, the 15% energy threshold which triggers it is raised by End. This means that its typically a good idea to get a mix of End and Rec when using Supernatural Power. W/ too much Rec, your energy threshold is too low for expensive attacks like Massacre to proc it reliably; w/ too much End, the energy restore will be weak (which is more of an issue when also weaving in non-SN attacks). You'll basically want to gear End and Rec until you get to the point where you can do your normal attack rotations smoothly and reliably.

Ofc, SEmbrace won't proc Supernatural Power here, but you can mitigate that by having a good amount of Dex for FotT procs (which will happen pretty often w/ a decent crit rate and when hitting multiple targets), and some cost discount on gear. Hopefully w/ that you can get to the point where channeling SEmbrace in AoE for extended periods won't be that much of an energy drain overall.